Caelii Aureliani methodici siccensis liber celerum vel acutarum passionum [Ensemble] Rhasis philosophi tractatus nonus ad regem almansorem, de curatione morborum particularium

Caelii Aureliani methodici siccensis liber celerum vel acutarum passionum [with] Rhasis philosophi tractatus nonus ad regem almansorem, de curatione morborum particularium
Apud Simonem Colinaeum [Simon Coline]
| Lutetiae Parisiorum 1533 & 1534 | 8vo (10 x 16.8 cm) | 131 ff.; 56 ff. | contemporary calf binding
Very rare first edition established by Johann Winther, based on the epistle. Another edition in 1529 by Henricus Petrus Basile concerned the adaptation of Oribase's work by Caelius Aurelianus, Tardarum Passionum. Only one copy can be found in the online catalogs: one is held in France at the Mazarine Library, and two copies are held in the United Kingdom, one in Oxford and one at the Royal College of Surgeons. Numerous dropped capitals in stipple style.
The second work is the work of Ab? Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyy? al-R?z? (Rhazes), a famous Iranian physician of the late 9th and early 10th centuries: Curatione morborum particularium. Very rare edition. No copy found in the French catalogs; one found in Oxford and another one in Durham.
Both works use a round, very readable Roman script.
Full brown calf, contemporary binding. Spine with Jansenist compartments. Blind tooled Renaissance frieze ornaments and foliated scrolls; central fleuron. Slighlty and skilfully restored binding, a particularly fresh ensemble.
Latin adaptation in three books of a lost work by Soranos of Ephesus, Celeres passiones. Soranos was a second-century Greek physician of the Methodist school, to which Caelius Aurelianus belonged and which is undoubtedly the most famous schools of Roman medicine. This school was based on therapeutics and use of drugs, medicines, and hygiene; the school traced back all pathogenesis to two actions, the release and the constriction of the tissues, and recommended suitable therapy.
Caelius Aurelianus was the last of the physician writers of the Roman Empire; he was considered the successor to Galen, although he severely criticized the methodical school. He was originally from Sicca Veneria in Roman Africa, in modern-day Algeria, and lived in Rome. His reading traces the etymological origin of diseases, and Caelius Aurelianus evokes the opinions of various Greek physicians on certain diseases in this medical textbook. His translation of Soranos of Ephesus is indeed a free adaptation, but it is precious, not only because it evokes a medicine that would be lost without his testimony, but also because it is the affirmation of a certain kind of therapy, of which Caelius Aurelianus is an illustrious representative.
The heir to Greek medicine, al-R?z? or Rhazes revolutionized medicine with a practice of great scientific rigor; he developed both a clinical method in the identification of symptoms and an empirical approach close to the patient, attentive to his psychological state, and insisting on the importance of diet for healing. He can be considered as the founder of chemical therapeutics, using chemistry for its curative effects. His book is a classic on the causes of diseases and adapted therapy (headaches, ailments of the eyes, teeth, tongue, lungs, stomach, intestine...).
This is a remarkable meeting of two flagship works of ancient medicine, foundation stones of modern medicine. The first is a testament to the greatest school of Roman medicine; the second, to one of the greatest Arab physicians.